Paul Tudor Jones, billionaire, is absolutely positive that 25% of your S&P index fund will go up in smoke if Elizabeth Warren is elected president.
That is an objective assessment, based on careful calculations around how all of the dozens of policy proposals she’s put forward would interact with one another to affect financial conditions, the economy and investor sentiment.
I’m just kidding. Nobody knows what that figure is based on, but according to Bloomberg’s account of what Jones said at the Robin Hood Investors Conference in New York on Monday, it may be based on the same thing that his projection of plunging economic growth under a Warren presidency is based on – an internal poll at his macro hedge fund.
He also predicted that the market would plunge 20% were Bernie Sanders to wrench the keys to the Oval Office from Donald Trump’s tiny orange hands.
Jones is hardly the first billionaire to warn about the purported perils for everyday Americans if they make the “mistake” of voting for a candidate whose policies are specifically designed to close the gap between people like Jones and everyone else.
Last week, for example, Leon Cooperman (a frequent Warren critic) accused her of sh–-ng on the f—ing American dream.
Of course, that characterization all depends on how you think about the “American dream”. For some folks, that dream doesn’t involve becoming a billionaire and lording it over a disappearing middle class, nor is it defined in terms of yachts, Mulsannes and Vacherons.
In fact, if you break down equity ownership by income quintile and/or net worth, it’s not clear that it’s defined in terms of the S&P either (imagine that).
(Credit Suisse, Fed)
So, who does Jones prefer? Well, Mayor Pete, apparently.
“I love Pete, I love Mayor Pete, because I think he would be the best administrator to run this country, and he’s got a compassionate heart”, Jones said earlier this month, at a gala (where other billionaires gathered).
As far as what would happen to stocks if Trump is reelected, Jones figures they’d gain at least 18% from current levels.
Right, because cancelling student debt wouldn’t lead to a missive increase in consumption.
I take a long view of this. The #1 threat to capitalists and capitalism – not just in the US but elsewhere – is enraged and indiscriminate populism. That is driven by blatant and soaring economic inequality.
If we don’t make this country a better place for the lowest income, roll back the extreme self-dealing of the largest corporations and ultra-wealthy, and flatten out economic disparities, then that will be done anyway, in a disorderly and violent fashion, at the cost of our democracy and our economic system. The French Revolution, the rise of facism, these are all warnings.
Would the 1% prefer to temporarily lose 25% of their equity wealth or 100% of their heads?
Would it be such a disaster to take economic inequality and wealth concentration back to the levels of, say the 1950s?
The stock market does not dictate what’s good or bad… So yes, financial wealth might go down Warren gets elected, but that does not make her a fool…
Lmao right they’ll boost 18% under Trump. Is that because the USD tanks by at least that much Paul?